By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
The emir of Dutse in Jigawa state, Alhaji Hameen Nuhu Sanusi on Sunday flagged off the first round of the 2014 routine immunisation campaign against child killer diseases with a directive to his district heads to embark on adequate enlightenment in the rural to ensure the success of the exercise.
The emir’s directive is coming just as the state government says it is targeting to immunize at least 1.5 million children under the age five against the child killer diseases in the state.
Performing the flag off at his palace, the monarch, who underscored the importance of the exercise, urged all the district heads in the seven local governments on areas under his emirate to mobilize all the relevant stakeholders such as the ward heads and religious leaders in their areas to ensure the success of the exercise.
On his part, he pledged to do all within his powers to ensure that the cordial close working relationship which his father had with the agency is not only maintained but improved upon.
In a remark, the The Director of Primary Healthcare Development Agency in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Shehu Sambo, said the exercise which is expected to cover all the 27 local councils of the state as well as at the 287 political wards across the state, This is with a view to ensuring that no segment of the society is left intended to.
He said the exercise is being largely funded by the state government in partnership with some international development partners such as World Health Organization, (WHO), United Nations Children Education Fund, (UNICEF) among others.
Dr. Sambo said there were no fewer than 10000 ad-hoc staff that are involved in the exercise, noting that the state government would no leave nothing to chance in ensuring that the exercise went on smoothly in the whole of the 287 political wards in the 27 local government areas across the state.
Describing the rate of acceptability of routine Immunization in the state as “very high”, the director, however admitted that there were some rural communities, where the agency was still encountering some challenges in the area of acceptance of the immunization. Even at that, he said some strategies were being worked to ensure that challenges were overcome.
According to him, “Let me correct certain impressions, the acceptance of polio immunization in Jigawa state is very high except in small communities where we have some challenges, but those are usually resolved through community leaders.
“Before the actual commencement date of this exercise we d have on the ground a special task force, headed by the state deputy governor of the state, and each of the 27 LGAs have also constituted their task forces, headed by the Council chairmen, with all the District Heads and other relevant stakeholders as members. So we believe that if you do that serious community mobilization engagement, usually you resolve the issue as the LGAs contribute in the financing the activities that is why we don’t have serious issues as far as the exercise is concerned.”
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